Golf is a calculated sport. One has to be keen with mathematics, energy distribution, and meteorology to master it. A golfer must be precise in his estimates of the distance needed to get his or her golf ball into a hole. They need to know just how much energy they need to fire into their swing to get their ball out of a bunker or wooded area alongside a golf course. They need to consider the weather, how the wind affects the angle at which one hits a ball, and how damp grass affects a golf ball’s roll, for instance. All these things accumulate into a wealth of knowledge and resources in a golfer’s brain. None of this knowledge can be executed without a proper golf club. Keeping tabs of how your golf clubs are faring, in terms of wear and tear, and how many you can utilize during a game can make or break your score. During open tournaments or a match play competition, for example, penalties can be given for having more than fourteen clubs in your bag.
A Usual Bag
A usual bag of clubs would include the following clubs:
- A putter,
- Woods (Fairway Woods and a driver),
- Irons (3-Iron, 9-Iron, and wedges), and
- Hybrids.
Wedges can be difficult to choose, because they all have different angles at which the club hits the ball. The following wedges are typical wedges you might see in a golf bag from lowest angle to greatest angle and from lowest to greatest amounts of loft.
Typical Wedges
- Numbers 0-9
- PW (Pitching Wedge)
- GW (Gap Wedge)
- AW (Approach Wedge)
- SW (Sand Wedge)
- LW (Lob Wedge)
- ULW (Ultra Lob Wedge)
For example, according to GolfSmith.com, the following information is true:
Clubs should be chosen after considering the following information, including but not limited to:
- The length of the course,
- How far you hit with each club on average (which can be figured out by practicing with each club at a driving range),
- The weather that day,
- The amount of water saturation in the grass, and
- The wind speed.
Penalties One Can Incur
According to the United States Golf Association (USGA), a club is noted as “out of play” when a player uses a club that makes the bag have more than fourteen clubs in it. For example, this penalty is incurred when a contender sees the use of a fifteenth, sixteenth, etc. club and announces it. A golfer will have two strokes added to their final score for each hole he or she used the club up to four points per round. During a match play, for example, the penalty would be different. A golfer would have to give up one hole he won for every penalty he incurred with the utmost of two per round.
Using Others’ Clubs
This is actually an act of fair play. Golfers can use other people’s golf clubs when playing. The USGA came up with a statute in 1988 that declared golfers could borrow anyone else’s clubs during a round and use it for the entirety of the round. This statute was altered in 1992, stating that golfers can only use their partner’s clubs during a round, not other contender’s clubs. The trick with this law, however, is that if partners are going to use each other’s clubs, they can only carry fourteen clubs between the two of them.
After reviewing this information, one can feel like their mind has been opened to a whole new world. Golfing takes precision–calculating the loft, specific angles, and length of golf clubs–meteorology, and energy distribution. It is important to speak with professionals on golf clubs to figure out which clubs would be best to use on which courses and on which days. This can help you get a handle on how to choose golf clubs and stay within the confines of USGA regulations so that you are not penalized during your game.